So were Carlton woeful or the Saints brilliant?

[_Ron_]

We were good today but it's hard to gauge as Carlton were not exactly pouring the pressure on!!

Leigh Fisher looks promising. Good mark and good build.

Anyways, thoughts?

:)

[JeffDunne]

Carlton were beyond woeful. Calling them insipid would be praising them.

I thought there were some good signs for us but hardly brilliant. Started well and the effort was there but we still have some work to do on our skills. A better team would have punished some of our skill errors - Carlton though just gave it straight back.

Can't be too disappointed with a 92 point belting but we still have plenty of work to do before we are playing near our best.

[Rough_Edges]

We were very good, but it was like playing no-one.

[Kildonan]

A little bit of both.

Carlton were beaten before the end of the first quarter (in fact they never actually caught up to our first quarter score), so they were never able to apply any scoreboard pressure. Pagan conceded the match at quarter time and changed tact to try and prevent a blowout scoreline.

The "pressure" was on the Saints to achieve the best score they could, given a good start, but a score suppressive gameplan of the opposition.

After an outstanding first quarter, scoring 7.7, the second quarter only yielded 2.6, (9.13 for the half). We scored 5.2 in the third quarter, and 4.3 in the last (9.5 in the second half). The final score 18.18 was an acceptable final score (could have been much higher if we could only have been more accurate). The output is adequate without being outstanding. It must be remembered that Carlton had given up hope of winning and were just trying to suppress our scoring and maybe claim a few goals back if they could.

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Seems strange for a team to win by 92 points and be considered not to have played that well, but I feel this was the case today. Felt like a practice match in many ways. I keep a tick sheet where I give a tick to players who get a solid contested possession or run the lines or snap a difficult goal, that sort of thing. I also give crosses for clangers, glaring errors. I actually only had Riewoldt and Hayes marked very highly on my sheet and had a devil of a time wondering who to slot in for the other 3 voting slots. We allowed the Saints to do as they please so most of their players weren't under pressure.

[Kildonan]

You may be right, ODN.
From my perspective we played well, without actually firing. We do have the ability to go to another level, and we simply weren't pushed to it today.
That said, we did have a number of changes to the team (5, think) including the blooding of a promising first year player and the return of another after he had missed one and a half seasons with injury. (He seemed to slide right into the groove though, didn't he?).

We have had an ordinary run to this stage of the season. There may be an argument to "with a little luck" we could have been 5-2 from the first 7, but we simply haven't been able to really hit our straps yet. We weren't playing well enough to take those wins.

There's a bit of history between our clubs and we have the psychological edge at the moment. I think that when you do become competitive against us, that Carlton should mark that as a measure of their improvement. If they were good enough, they would love to avenge themselves of the short term humliation we have imposed on them. It negates or ignores the long term ownage of St Kilda by Carlton and stains that brilliant record.

I think St Kilda also answered the challenge, with Pagan going into damage control and effectively handing us the match at quarter time, to score a decent enough score to win most matches. To prevent the possession game from strangling their scoring efficiency.

Gehrig played a role which negated Whitnall's impact and freed up Riewoldt to capitalise on the space. Baker shut down Stevens and starred himself.

[bubblegoose]

We would have been brilliant if we'd played this way last week.

[panthers]

so odn you wouldnt have given any ticks to Carlton players would you?

[Snoozer]

Your midfielders are a cut above ours. Hayes tore us a new cakehole, and for mine was BOG... St Nick was fairly handy too.

It's pretty hard to stop the flow when a side knows it is clearly superior, and basically have the confidence to do as they please.... especially when the opposition has defensive Generals such as Scotland, Stevens and Houlihan.

[The Old Dark Navy's]

so odn you wouldnt have given any ticks to Carlton players would you?I gave several to Fev for his efforts, a few to Wiggins for his courage. Lappin, Kouta, McLaren, Scotland and Murphy as servicable.

My sheet had Fevola as third best on ground but it didn't seem right for Carlton to get any votes in the top 5, however I relented and gave him 1 vote.

I had Baker and Gram getting votes and Voss and Goddard doing pretty well. A few ticks for Gehrig's game too albeit in a different type of role.

[Kildonan]

...especially when the opposition has defensive Generals such as Scotland, Stevens and Houlihan.

I gave several to Fev for his efforts, a few to Wiggins for his courage. Lappin, Kouta, McLaren, Scotland and Murphy as servicable.

My sheet had Fevola as third best on ground but it didn't seem right for Carlton to get any votes in the top 5, however I relented and gave him 1 vote.

I had Baker and Gram getting votes and Voss and Goddard doing pretty well. A few ticks for Gehrig's game too albeit in a different type of role.

I actually picked Scotland as Carlton's best, just shading the more highly visible Fevola.

[SpInNeR]

Grams decision making and disposal was woeful yesterday. Wasnt in the best at all.

He seems as if he is still playing a VFL type of football. Hopefully he will adjust with experience.

[bubblegoose]

Grams decision making and disposal was woeful yesterday. Wasnt in the best at all. He seems as if he is still playing a VFL type of football. Hopefully he will adjust with experience.

I'd agree the return from his shots on goal was disappointing, but I do like that he has confidence to take that shot at goal. With a fair bit of work & further experience, his decision making, accuracy & confidence under pressure should only get better. He's certainly taken a big step up this year, hopefully he just keeps improving.

[sainter]

I'd agree the return from his shots on goal was disappointing, but I do like that he has confidence to take that shot at goal. With a fair bit of work & further experience, his decision making, accuracy & confidence under pressure should only get better. He's certainly taken a big step up this year, hopefully he just keeps improving.

I agree with that.

I was as disappointed as the next person when he couldn't finish off those shots at goal but the best thing about Grammy is that he's prepared to take players on and run through the lines.

The comparisons with Aussie Jones have been harsh on him because few players in the league can kick a ball on either side of the body like Aussie could.

In what has been an up and down season so far he has been one of the shining lights so far.